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This week’s Auchtoon: Michigan has problems but we’re great at this

How much do I like beer? Well, I can tell you this: My wife and I recently traded a large and well-maintained trampoline for a single 12 ounce bottle of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. Those who know me would likely say that was out of character. (Not the trading things for alcohol — that actually is in my wheelhouse.) No, I’m talking about the deep appreciation for something like Founders KBS — a high-end, critically praised consumable. I’m really more of a eat-because-I’m-hungry, water-from-the-faucet, breakfast-cereal-for-dinner kind of guy.

But something has happened to me with beer. I’ve become discriminating, an aficionado (a snob). Living in Michigan, it’s hard not to be. There is just so much good stuff around. West Michigan in particular. When I moved here it was Bland Rapids. Now it’s Beer City USA. Founders Brewing alone now takes up a whole city block! It’s really quite amazing.

The subtext here is that things aren’t so bad. Don’t despair, even though it seems to be the popular thing to do. Despair can lead to questionable decision-making (like, say, the Republican candidate for president).

If we can go from the blah mediocrity of Goebel’s and Black Label and (dare I say it) Stroh’s to the paradise of choices we produce today, there is hope. We can do extraordinary and successful things here in Michigan. And if we can get our roads, schools, and infrastructure on the path to real recovery, we will have plenty of fantastic options to toast our success.

John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com.

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We are getting such a glut of breweries that someday the Rapids in Grand Rapids will probably be flowing beer! And don’t make fun of strohs either! My husband would drink nothing else. I was having a hard time finding it but very sadly he passed away before that happened. Me? I am a Stella Artois girl. I may give your KBS a try someday. Enjoy your take on everything. Say more bad things about that republican wig.

You can’t be a true beer aficionado if you are discriminating, maybe you’re an effete beer connoisseur/snob or beer prude? I spent a little over a year in Germany, 1984, where most every small tavern/restaurant had it’s own house brew which I’d willingly sample and pronounce fit to drink. I prefer stout the stouter the better, more than one innkeeper broke out his private stash of home brew for me to sample. The innkeepers wife would often be looking on and walk away muttering something about Americans or men in general encouraging him while the innkeeper himself would have a broad smile and proud look, “Ah, this young man knows his bier”, while old timers/regulars that wouldn’t drink the stuff laughed or grimaced knowingly about the coming tirade. “Do you want me to serve you water, you oafs probably wouldn’t even notice”.

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